Move to cancel coronavirus study grant sets 'dangerous precedent', interferes with science, say 77 US Nobel laureates
Stating that they are "gravely concerned" about the recent cancellation of a grant on a study on coronaviruses, 77 US Nobel laureates in science have warned that the action sets a "dangerous precedent" by interfering in the conduct of science and "jeopardizes public trust" in the process of awarding federal funds for research. They have demanded that the decision be investigated and the grant reinstated, emphasizing that the explanation given by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for killing the grant was "preposterous".
"We ask that you act urgently to conduct and release a thorough review of the actions that led to the decision to terminate the grant, and that, following this review, you take appropriate steps to rectify the injustices that may have been committed in revoking it," the scientists wrote in a May 21 letter to Francis Collins, NIH director, and Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
For many years, Dr Peter Daszak from the New-York based EcoHealth Alliance, along with other scientists from the organization, has been conducting NIH-supported research on coronaviruses and other infectious agents, focusing on the transmission of these viruses from animal hosts to human beings. But the grant to EcoHealth Alliance was abruptly terminated by NIH on April 24, 2020.
"(This was) just a few days after President Trump responded to a question from a reporter who erroneously claimed that the grant awarded millions of dollars to investigators in Wuhan. Despite the misrepresentation of Dr Daszak's grant, despite the high relevance of the studies to the current pandemic, and despite the very high priority score that his application for renewal had received during peer review, the NIH informed Dr Daszak and his colleagues that the grant was being terminated because "NIH does not believe that the current project outcomes align with the program goals and agency priorities."
Such explanations are preposterous under the circumstances, they said. According to the American Nobel Laureates in physiology, medicine, chemistry, and physics, the work of EcoHealth Alliance depends on productive collaborations with scientists in other countries, including scientists in Wuhan, China, where the current pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus arose. "Now is precisely the time when we need to support this kind of research if we aim to control the pandemic and prevent subsequent ones," said experts.
In the letter, the laureates emphasized that they take pride in the US' "widely admired system" for allocating funds based on expert review and public health needs. "The abrupt revoking of the award to Dr Daszak contravenes these basic tenets and deprives the nation and the world of highly regarded science that could help control one of the greatest health crises in modern history and those that may arise in the future," they wrote.
This is not the first time that scientists have voiced their concern on the matter. In April, over 300 scientists from 29 organizations wrote to NIH, HHS, and the Congress, demanding the immediate reinstatement of the grant. "We write in strong condemnation of political interference in scientific grantmaking. Beyond the critical importance of the research the NIH defunded, political interference in grantmaking is a disturbing trend that would allow politicians to effectively squash research that does not align with their political desires," said the letter from the Covid-19 Working Group-New York.
In another recent letter, 31 American scientific societies have asked the NIH to be transparent about their decision-making process on this matter. Asking the federal funding agencies to safeguard the American biomedical research enterprise, the May 20 letter says the action taken by the NIH must be immediately reconsidered. This effort is being led by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). The experts argue that the decision sets a dangerous precedent by revoking a grant that was awarded based upon scientific merit without a justifiable rationale such as issues related to scientific or financial fraud or misconduct.
"We, the undersigned scientific organizations representing tens of thousands of members of the American biomedical research enterprise, are alarmed by the National Institutes of Health’s revocation of a peer-reviewed research grant for studies of coronaviruses by EcoHealth Alliance. Not only is this decision counterintuitive, given the urgent need to better understand the virus that causes Covid-19 and identify drugs that will save lives, but it politicizes science at a time when, if we are to stamp out this scourge, we need the public to trust experts and to take collective action," wrote the scientists.